The environment of space is relatively harsh and can subject the equipment used on the exterior of space vehicles, space stations, and space exploration habitats, such as hatches, docking mechanisms, antennae, cameras, sensors and the like, to a wide variety of potentially harmful agents, including strong thermal radiation and micrometeoroid impacts. Consequently, it is frequently desirable to provide a protective shield over the affected equipment to ameliorate the damaging effects of such elements. Conventional space vehicle protective doors and shields are typically generally planar in shape and cantilevered to one side of the area of the affected equipment when disposed in an open position, and can therefore interfere with the openings that they close, or the equipment on the surface of the vehicle that they are intended to protect, such as a docking ring or an antenna.
Consequently, a long-felt but as yet unsatisfied need exists for a simple, reliable protective cover that can be deployed over a docking mechanism, hatch, or other equipment used on the surface of a space vehicle to provide at least thermal and MMOD protection for the equipment that overcomes the disadvantages of conventional doors and shields as discussed above.